11. Wyatt
ELEVEN
WYATT
Just the thought of seeing him again made my cheeks all red and hot. I was so embarrassed. How could I forget to lock the bathroom door in a house full of people?
Thankfully he hadn’t walked in on me jerking off two minutes earlier or I wouldn’t have been able to be in the same town as him, let alone the same room.
Despite my shame and utter mortification, I eventually had to leave my brother’s bedroom at some point.
My stomach was growling like a beast, and it required sustenance or else.
So I got dressed, the same clothes I had been wearing last night that still smelled of smoke, and tried to make my escape out of this house.
As soon as I stepped outside of the room, however, I found two sets of eyes staring back at me.
“Good morning, sunshine,” my brother said from the kitchen table, but it was Ari’s gaze I focused on.
He nodded at me with a soft smile, all mature and grown-up, unlike me who felt like a pubescent teenager caught red-handed beating off to dirty magazines.
I hadn’t felt like that in a long time. A very long time.
My face went all flushed, and I muttered a good-morning back at them, and with my tail between my legs, I made an attempt at leaving the apartment.
“Where are you off to?” Warren asked.
I stopped halfway to the front door and muttered, “Breakfast.”
“Oh, don’t be absurd. We’ve got plenty of breakfast here,” Ari said, and I couldn’t help but look at him.
Light filtered through the window behind him, giving him a rim light, a glow that made him look almost angelic. I hadn’t dealt in religion in a very long time, but he was for sure the sexiest angel I’d ever seen.
“I’ve made extra for you,” he added, and I shook my head clear of those inappropriate thoughts.
I couldn’t keep doing this. I couldn’t keep getting carried away in his presence. The last thing I needed was to embarrass myself further and reveal my “dirty, little secret” to everyone over an irrationally uncontrollable lust.
“Oh,” was all I managed to articulate and glanced at the door, considering my escape for another moment.
With a heavy sigh, I turned my back on the door and sat at the kitchen table.
I must’ve been a glutton for trouble because that was all that could await me in his company.
Even so, I couldn’t refuse the invitation, considering all the effort he’d put into preparing breakfast. Especially considering they’d both offered me a bed for the night.
I didn’t want to be ungrateful. Ma had taught me better.
“Thank you,” I said and looked at the options on the table.
There were stacks of pancakes on one plate, fresh fruit in a bowl, maple syrup and whipped cream, sunny-side-up eggs, bacon, and sausages on another plate, with toast on the side.
“Help yourself to anything. I made extra because I didn’t know what you like,” he said.
Warren opposite me seemed to lower his head a little more over his plate and chewed on some sausage.
“That’s…that’s so generous. You didn’t need to go into all that trouble…for me.” Somehow my voice came out composed, not shaky like it felt inside me.
“It’s been a wild twenty-four hours. You need all the fuel. And no trouble at all. I love cooking.”
Warren raised an eyebrow. “Since when?” he asked.
“Huh?” Ari asked back.
“Since when do you love cooking?” Warren said a little louder.
Ari shrugged. “Since always.”
“Then why the hell are we eating takeout all the time?”
Ari’s cheeks went red, and his mouth opened and closed a couple of times before any sound came out of it. “Because…I’m always tired from work. You can cook too, you know.”
“But I don’t love cooking,” Warren said, making sure to drag the word love to make his point.
I pulled the plate of eggs, bacon, and sausage closer to me, and I started eating while watching my brother and his roommate argue about Ari’s statement.
What an odd pair.
“Does that mean if I help out at the van you can make me all the Greek food to fill my tummy twice over?”
“Tummy? Really? What are you? Five?” Ari grimaced. “And when you become a doctor and can do all the stuff I do, sure. Until then, eat your damn pizza and shut up.”
I chuckled, but when Ari turned to look at me, I started coughing to cover it up.
“You’re so cold and cruel,” Warren whined, and I rolled my eyes internally. Or so I hoped.
He was acting like a child. Then again, he’d always been a child in my eyes. He was so much younger than me. I didn’t know if there would ever be a time I wouldn’t see him as a child, even if I lived long enough to see him turn gray.
“Oh, you want to talk about cold, do you? How about your feet being so cold last night that I needed a separate blanket to put between you and me!” Ari sat back and pursed his lips.
I couldn’t quite tell if he was being playful or downright annoyed.
Warren huffed. “You’re gonna talk about my feet when your ass cheeks were the temperature of the fucking ice age?”
Ari gasped. “How dare you!” He slapped Warren.
His ass cheeks?
Had they…had they been sleeping naked in the same bed? What on earth…
The sharp sound of skin on skin echoed across the kitchen, and Warren hissed.
“Ooh, slap me harder, Daddy,” Warren cooed, making eyes at Ari, and I sat back.
Were they…were these two an item? I had no idea if they were being bros or boyfriends. It was hard to tell the difference sometimes. Especially when stuck in the middle of a desert with adrenaline and testosterone going through the roof and no proper way to let off some steam.
But this seemed more than banter. I didn’t know why. Maybe it was because Ari wasn’t in the Forces, or maybe they simply reminded me of Dare and me. Of how we were in the privacy of our homes. A little playful. A little irreverent. A little hot.
Ari slapped Warren again, and he moaned before Ari ruffled Warren’s hair and returned to his meal, mumbling something I didn’t catch.
Maybe it was an “I love you.” Maybe it wasn’t. I had no idea. What I did know though, was how ironic it would be if Warren was gay too.
I’d been trying to hide this secret of mine all my life. Wouldn’t it be just the best joke if Warren was gay and so comfortable in his own skin that he didn’t even feel the need to come out?
I shook my head and looked down at my plate.
If these two were an item, that was an even bigger reason to stop my errant thoughts. I couldn’t be lusting after my brother’s boyfriend.
Figured I’d have the same taste in men as my brother, of course. Life loved to play cruel jokes like that. As if I hadn’t had enough cruelty these past few months to last me a lifetime.
No. I couldn’t let myself get carried away by Ari and his sweet smile, his manly features, and the eyes that felt like they could see inside my soul. No. I was homeless, jobless, clothes-less. Those were things to concern myself with. Not silly crushes as if I were a fifteen-year-old.
As I took a bite of the sausage and its sweet, meaty juices seeped into my tastebuds making my mouth water, I caught Ari’s gaze.
In an instant, it was as if he’d taken a match and set me ablaze. For the first time in forever I felt ill at ease in my own skin. As if I’d lost complete control over my own body and needs. My cock went hard, and it became difficult to swallow my mouthful.
Something buzzed on my leg, and thankfully it offered enough distraction for me to pull my focus away from Ari and try to retrieve my phone from my pocket.
I answered without even checking and pushed the chair back so I could take the call in Warren’s bedroom.
No. I needed to put some distance between him and me. It didn’t matter if I had all the determination in the world. My mind, body, and soul had decided they couldn’t exist in the same space as this literal Greek god without me turning into a walking, fumbling servant.
I took a deep breath and calmed myself as I brought my phone to my ear, leaning against the wall. I was safely locked away from his penetrating gaze and his delicious food.
“Yeah.” My voice came out dry and croaky.
“Wyatt! Are you okay?” said the familiar voice on the other end of the line, and I breathed a little easier.
It didn’t matter how long it’d been, his voice would always put me at ease.
“Hey,” I said. “I’m…I’m fine. Why?” I asked.
Dare sighed, and I followed suit, waiting for him to speak.
“How are you feeling today?” he asked, and last night’s events blasted me back to the harsh present.
“Right,” I mumbled.
There were so much more important things to worry about other than my dick.
“I’m fine, I guess. Angry. Frustrated.” And a bunch of other things I was too scared to utter aloud, preferring their tight company around my chest.
“Of course. It’s terrible, what happened. Have you thought about what you’re going to do?”
I shook my head, staring at the ceiling, then I remembered he couldn’t see me. “I…can’t even think straight. I haven’t shut an eyelid.”
“He needs to be stopped. Before he destroys us and this whole island.”
I pulled my head forward then knocked it back against the wall, the thump reverberating through me and giving me a little more momentum. A little more spirit.
“I know. You think I don’t know that? I know.”
“I know you know, Wyatt. But you need to do something.” He gritted his teeth.
I could see him as if he were standing in front of me. The quiet rage rolling through him when I’d done something to upset him. Usually related to my fear of being found out.
Funny how he was still angry at me, even though we hadn’t been a thing for over five years.
God. How could I have gone wrong so much in my life? I couldn’t stop screwing up, could I?
First Dare, then Salieri. Then the bar. Mistake after mistake after mistake. As if I’d learned nothing in all my fifty-eight years in this fucking world.
Wasn’t it funny how I could manage troops in the Navy, yet in my personal life, I couldn’t even manage a shit without farting?
“So what are you going to do?” Dare asked, and I bit the inside of my cheek, trying to keep the tears from falling.
I couldn’t fall apart now. Not when everyone needed me to be the commander they knew.
“First I need to check the secret artillery room is still a secret,” I said.
Then, it was time to go to war.
Somehow. Without any one of us dying.
God, I hate myself.